Private Farewell
by Dreamer1985
Summary: Jarod visits his late wife's grave to say a private good-bye.


Fan-Fiction

Big Valley

**Private Good-bye**

Jarod's private monologue

I have permission from Tauna Petit-Straun to use her

Character, Peggy.

The grass danced with the wind as a lone rider rode up to the private cemetery. Climbing from his horse the man's footsteps took him to a grave nestled in the nearest corner. Its headstone read Peggy C. Barkley.

"Hi Peggy. It's been awhile. Longer than I'd have liked -sorry." Jarod looked down as he held his hat and let out a sigh. "Honey, I'm moving. My hair no longer sports its color and while I can still move around without a problem, well…" The man's voice trailed off and then started back up, "It's not like the ranch is in stranger's hands anyway.

Nick's children are running the show now. Oh, Nick's still Nick and I suspect he'll go on doing his fair share until the man up stairs makes him stop. Heath is married and living nearby. We only hear from Gene sporadically, he's somewhere in Europe last I heard. Our children are scattering like the wind."

"Thomas J. lives outside of Los Angeles. He's a lawyer. Keeps in close contact with Nick's boys on legal matters and Karl's studying to become a doctor back east. Peggy Ann just got married and moved up to Washington and Little Virginia isn't so little anymore. She's studying to become a schoolteacher. The little gal got it in her head that teaching the Indians in Arizona to read and write would be a good idea." He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe, they should at that. At least they could fight the white man on his own grounds." Twisting his hand he hoped his late wife could hear him.

The sun was out but clouds were starting to appear. Jarrod was sure a storm was rolling in. "Peggy… I …never stopped loving you. You still hold a place my heart and I was never ashamed to have the name of Barkley behind your given name." The man closed his eyes for a moment before opening them back up. " Honey, guess I should finish that thought I let trail off. I'm not moving because I no longer care about the ranch or family, honest, but…" He pushed a lone strand of hair behind his ear. "…Annie is a great gal - and I think you'd like her, but …well, Stockton isn't to her liking. Actually, I think it's Nick's new wife she doesn't care for. Those two are constantly butting heads. It's like trying to hook two mules together to pull our neighbor's plow and, well, I just think it would be wiser for me to move my law practice up near her folks in Northern California. At least that way family can still be loyal to family - I hope you understand."

Once again the man fell silent as he wondered what Peggy would think of Annie. Annie was bright, intelligent and she'd been through enough not to take anything for granted. "She's not a spring chicken so you don't have to worry about me robbing the cradle, but she doesn't have one foot in the grave either, so, we will -hopefully - get some time together." He chuckled. "Her brood was pretty good sized. Can you believe she had eleven children? She started young. I won't say how young because you might just die all over again, but they are all raised -youngest just left home. Guess that's another reason I decided to move. Her folks are getting up in years and they need our help. Not to mention they have a huge house. I figured with our four and her eleven, well, that's a whole lot of company come Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The mention of holidays made him sigh. "Don't worry, I'm not going to neglect the Barkley side. Annie about come unglued at the thought of never seeing them -said she could even stomach the other mule for one week out of the year." Putting back on his hat he squatted down to lay a flower on Peggy's grave. "We'll come back once a year to visit you at the very least. Annie's late husband is buried nearby and we both agreed it would be wrong not to make the trip each spring, or whenever we come to visit family." With that he stood up and climbed up on his horse.

He and the animal stood still for awhile as he looked at Peggy's grave and then up at the sky. A storm was definitely heading his way. Bidding one last private good-bye to the woman who had saved his life and stood by him for twenty-years Jarrod rode up to the house to join Annie for the trip up north. Peggy was gone, but she'd not been forgotten.


End file.
